Back Story: That's How Marriages Last by Leland Thoburn
I am fascinated by how people’s perspectives on their identity and self-worth change with their possessions. Thirty years ago, this was most observable with cars. Now, the same phenomena occurs (on a smaller scale) with an upgrade from a flip phone to an iPhone, or from a laptop to a tablet. I’m not immune—this is not a holier-than-thou rant. But I felt like taking a swipe at this aspect of human nature.
By the way, another area where this phenomenon manifests is when someone takes possession of their first firearm. A real transformation occurs when someone feels truly dangerous for the first time in their lives. That can be a highly liberating feeling. One of my favorite books is My Life in the Plains and Diggings, the diary of a 49er—one of those brave souls who took to the trail to reach the Valhalla of the gold fields of California. In that diary, he relates how at the start of the overland trail, the farmers all obtained side-arms, how they pranced about wearing them “in the approved desperado style” (i.e. low on one side), and how it took two or three weeks for their behavior to return to normal. So this phenomenon of self-perception being varied by one’s possessions is not isolated to the 21st century.
I started to write a story that poked fun at our identification with “stuff” by taking this phenomenon to an extreme. Soon, I realized this was also a golden opportunity to make fun of the trend of outsourcing call center work overseas. I had just read that culture clashes provide some of the richest material for writers, so I decided to weave that into the story and see what could be derived from a technical support call about life.
My first draft was just the phone call part of the story. It was all dialogue, but I thought it was pretty good. Shortly thereafter, I enrolled in a flash fiction seminar hosted by the editors of Flash Me magazine. I included this story as grist for their critical mill. Among their suggestions were that I set up more of the phone call (i.e. there wasn’t enough back story to frame it properly) and that it needed narrative to offset the dialog. I had 24 hours to fix it. The first part of the story—everything up to the call to Microsoft—just poured out, pretty much final draft, that night.
Originally, the story was entitled “Hopeless.” That was when I was in my one-word-title phase. I used to love one-word titles until I realized that as clever as they could be (and I LOVE a good double entendre), they would never entice a reader the way a longer title would. So as a last modification, I changed the title to something that I felt would lure the reader in.
Like all of the humorous stories I’ve written, I really got a kick out of this. I perhaps entertain myself as much as I do anybody else, and that’s fine with me.
If you enjoyed it, too, we’ve got something in common.
Leland Thoburn’s story “That’s How Marriages Last” was published in the winter 2011 issue of Rose & Thorn Journal. To read more of his stories visit lelandthoburn.
Leland, I love how working on the back story of "That's How Marriages Last" led to this back story post. Thanks for sharing your process with us.
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Love it!
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Always enjoy these glimpses into the writer's mind - thank you Leland!
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